Before the Light
by Shyranae
Summary: Yami's time working for Voldemort. Back Story to 'Light in the Shadow's'. You don't have to have read it to understand this one.
1. The Dark Lord

_For those of you who have read or are reading Light in the Shadows this is a back story to it. It is about the time when Yami and the other Shades worked for Voldemort. _

_I love doing back stories; you don't have to work out what happens because you've already figured it out before. This story is going to be all from Yami's perspective so no chopping and changing like in the original._

_Hope you enjoy!_

Chapter 1: The Dark Lord

The Shade known to his fellows as Yami had a very large territory. It wasn't surprising to most because he was one of the strongest and oldest of their race. The one thing that bothered him, if only slightly, was the presence of human wizards within the boundaries of his territory.

Fifty years ago they had discovered some kind of spell within their own magic which could discourage a Shade from entering into an area. As such Yami, and almost every other Shade he could contact, now had large inaccessible bubbles in his territory. Yami was twitching around the edge of one now, glaring over the border line at a group of happy children playing with a ball. It was really quite wrong. Yami watched with annoyance as the darkings flitted through the barrier as though it didn't exist, snipping and tasting the magic within that safe little bubble.

Suddenly a surge of emotion caught Yami's attention. Spinning in the general direction of the wave of energy and sensation, Yami called to his darkings. Fear and agony, that was more like it. Though he did wonder what was causing it.

As a general rule humans didn't feel those kind of emotions at that level of intensity without some kind of input, usually a nice chunk of Shade magic. After all if you couldn't induce the emotional energy you fed on then there was no point in using it as an energy source. Yami checked his boundary spells. No Shade had crossed the spells, so whatever was causing the emotion was mortal in origin.

Dementors perhaps, Yami had seen a few more of them recently. Shades and the soul-feeders had a healthy respect for each other. Shades knew that the presence of a few dementors could enhance the fear being felt by their prey, generally humans, though it didn't taste nearly as good as Shade induced fear. While the dementors knew that if they came too close in too greater numbers to a Shade then their darker and more deadly cousins would easily and uncaringly obliterate them.

There was no way that Yami could tell from here what kind of creature was causing these emotions. He would have to wait until he got closer. The boundary spells after all only picked up other Shades. What was the point of detecting and differentiating between other races, they were all just prey and none could really cause any lasting damage to him.

Yami followed the scent of that fear and when he got closer the sense of pain increased dramatically. That was odd. Not a dementor then, as this was physical pain, not emotional pain as Yami had first thought.

Yami quickly pinned down the area where the emotions were coming from. It was a clearing; standing in it was a group of humans. They were all clad in black and they appeared to be torturing another human. They were using their wands, a primitive and vastly ineffectual type of magic. However the result in this case was impressive, the human was writhing on the stone in the centre of the clearing screaming in agony.

Yami slid into the line of trees, his shadow form blending flawlessly with the dimness in the undergrowth and watched. The human was nearing death now; Yami could taste it in the air.

The humans in the black robes were laughing and showed no signs of relenting. Yami watched for another moment before he stepped in, literally. His shadows drew together, forming into the slim body of a human youth.

At first none of the humans noticed him. However as he walked past them towards the exhausted human, red eyes flashing in the dim light, more and more of them stopped. As Yami's fear spells started to take hold the humans wands dropped to their sides and they began to stare, terror filling them. Yami smirked and moved to stand between the tortured human and the others. After all this was one of his humans and no one killed them except him.

The human male closest to Yami lifted his wand and opened his mouth to spell him. Yami distractedly detached a strand of shadows from his human form and sent them out, the human dropped dead. Yami was a little disappointed. It was much more satisfying when they died screaming, but he didn't have the time to make up and manipulate the spell required to do that.

Admittedly it didn't matter because the blind terror from the other humans was more than satisfactory. The response from the other humans after one of them died was predictable. They tried to curse him. As the other humans raised their wands Yami released the human behind him from her bonds.

He called on a darking to lead her away from the clearing; it would be no fun if she died like this, better to die screaming.

Spells began to spear towards him; Yami judged the magic and considered what to do. The spells would sting if they hit, he would have to block them then. He wove a shield from the dark shadows of his stronger reserves. The spells were absorbed into his magic. Yami smirked, as the humans continued to throw everything they had. The darkings were dancing around the clearing in delight. The little shadows feasted heavily on the wealth of magic which had suddenly appeared.

Yami watched the humans. They were stupid. This shield would simply use all the power that they were throwing at him to further strengthen the shielding, still they tried. Yami took the time to look around the clearing; there were twelve humans so he stored their magical signature in his memory. That way if any of them escaped he would be able to find them.

There was a pause in the spells, which was what Yami had been waiting for. He dissolved; his shadows began to whirl around the clearing, screams of terror and agony sung through Yami's senses.

The resulting scene was a little grisly. Yami had ripped the humans apart, he didn't know why; he didn't have a reason. He didn't really care if the human they had been torturing had died, but killing them had been fun and energy productive.

There was a soft chuckle. Yami turned his attention to the patch of shadows which had produced the laugh. His theoretical hackles rose. There was a human there, but this human was wrong. His soul was tainted in darkness. Yami let a growl ripple from his shadows, but the wizard held out his hands. "I am not going to attempt to spell you, I have an offer for you."

Yami swirled around for a moment considering the humans words. Then against his better judgement Yami took human form, this human felt like fear and anguish, overlaid with that dark taint that Yami couldn't quite place, he may not be too bad as humans went.

"Well human, your reason must be good or I will destroy you as I have destroyed your kin folk." Yami prowled around and seated himself on the stone in the clearing centre. The wizard stepped into the light and Yami suppressed a start of surprise, his skin was deathly pale and his eyes were red. Yami frowned faintly and examined the human more closely. No he was definitely not a Shade. His eyes were wrong, Yami realised after a few moments, the result of whatever he had done to taint his own soul.

The human was talking now, so Yami focused. "I have been considering ways to get what it is I need from the other wizards of the magical community. I believe that you could help me."

Yami sneered, "Why should I help you human, you have nothing that I want."

"I think I do. I can destroy the anti-Shade spells around all the wizard communities, letting you have free reign over the population and if you don't harm my Death Eaters they can help to induce a great deal of fear." The human stopped and allowed Yami to think.

It was a tempting proposition. Leave some humans and in return he could feast on the others. "What is it you want?"

"To rid the world of the mudbloods, impure wizards, all I ask of you is your allegiance." The human said, excitement rising. Yami hissed thoughtfully and was amused when the human flinched faintly. "Very well, I will assist you, but first you will destroy the spells within my own territory."

The human smiled, "Of course."

With a flick of his wand Voldemort signalled the Death Eaters stationed around the Shade's territory, it had taken him a long time to find this age old and powerful Shade and he was not going to let him get away easily. The Death Eaters destroyed the spells. By the time Voldemort had looked back the Shade was gone and echoing through the air were the screams of mudbloods who had not met a Shade in over fifty years.

* * *

_Again I know I said that I was only going to write one story at a time, but this is sort of the same story, so I don't have to pay attention to too many characters. Plus it will help me to develop Yami in Light in the Shadows._

_Let me know what you think._


	2. The First Assult

Chapter 2: The First Assault

Yami made his way to a wizarding village just outside of his territory. These humans had been some of the first to implement the anti-Shade spells which now kept him out of many areas.

That would be changing.

Voldemort, as the tainted human called himself, had sent him a message requesting that Yami make his way to this village and when the spells around it fell, to feast to his heart's content. The message had come via one of the other humans who worked for Voldemort. This particular human had been terrified, but strangely his fear of Yami was less that his fear of failing in the task that had been set him.

Yami had seen very little of Voldemort since he had agreed to this alliance. However he was a little interested to know more about a human who could draw greater fear than a Shade.

Yami was a little edgy about having to be outside of his own territory. After all when he was outside of his own boundary spells there was no way to tell if another Shade crossed them. The only comfort in this was the fact that the area around his territory was unclaimed by any other Shade. For two reasons, the first being the lack of accessible humans outside of Yami's territory and the second being that Shades never shared boundaries. It caused too many fights.

The anti-Shade spells around this village were still in place, so Yami settled down within the bounds of his territory to wait. He would be able to sense the disappearance of the spells from there.

Yami wasn't sure of how long he waited, time was so relative and when you were immortal its passing was unimportant. Soon Yami felt a flicker of power and then the spells were just gone, he didn't even pause to consider how the spells had been undone instead he flexed his form in pleasure and surged forwards.

Yami passed into the town unchallenged, and spread out his shadows; it had been so long since he had been able to draw fear from a whole village of wizards all at once. The magic that was an intrinsic part of his very essence attacked the humans around him, tugging and waring with their magic, confusing and weakening their defences while the magic under his conscious control wove illusions and fear-senses.

Screams began to rise from the village. Yami drew in the energy revelling in it.

Then things began to go wrong. The humans who worked for Voldemort began to arrive, that was alright as Yami had been expecting them and had already prepared to alter the spells he was weaving to roll off of them. As well as this the humans appeared to have spells on them which protected them to a degree from the unconscious magic of a Shade.

However Yami had not realised just what the humans would be doing while he terrorised the wizards. As they ran in terror from him, the other humans made their way through the village, killing the fleeing villagers.

Yami wasn't sure of how he should react to this. The words of the primitive killing spell seemed to induce a great deal of terror and yet the humans were dead, which meant that they were of no use to Yami anymore. He growled and lunged downwards focussing in on one of the humans he was supposed to be working with.

His shadows wrapped around the human. Yami twined ropes of magical energy around the robed human and squeezed. The human gave one agonised shriek which trailed away to a gurgle before his life flickered and died.

The other humans turned to him; raising their wands. Yami drew his shadows together and met the eyes of the leader. Yami's present human-form was several inches shorter than this human, not that it mattered. He began to growl, lips drawing back from his teeth. A few of the humans threw some spells in his direction, a few he caught on a quick shield, the others he allowed past to strike him, they spilled over as he drew the energy from them and allowed what remained to fade.

After the first volley of magic, the leader raised his hand. Yami turned his head to face this human; he lifted his head and met the man's eyes again. The human could only hold Yami's bloodied gaze for a few moments before he glanced aside. "The Dark Lord wishes to speak with you." He said, hands toying with his wand absently.

Yami smirked, "Fine, I need to speak with him also." His voice purred low and dangerous. Every human present flinched all of them fingering their wands. Yami gave a low rumbling laugh and released the illusion which gave him a physical form.

His shadows began to follow smoothly after the humans. The humans looked at him uneasily and one of them spoke up. "We are apparating to the Dark Lord, how are you going to get there?" His voice wavered and he wasn't looking at Yami.

The Shade gave another rumbling laugh and drew his shadows into a very tight ribbon; he then wrapped himself around the human who had spoken. "You may go." He commented pleasantly, the close proximity allowed Yami even greater access to the human's life energies. He would most probably feel miserable for several weeks after this.

Then the village around him rolled, Yami was surrounded by human magic, and it was crushing him. It jerked and tugged in the opposite direction to Yami's own magic. Then as suddenly as it had begun it was gone.

Yami released his human transport who immediately collapsed. Yami moved into a conveniently placed shadow filled corner. This allowed him to observe the room. Some of the humans were now carrying the collapsed one out, and Yami was allowed a view of a large chair, in it was the tainted human Voldemort.

His dead red eyes were glancing around the room. "I assume that you are here." Voldemort's high voice rung through the room each one of the humans present flinched and bowed, fear flickered. Yami replied without leaving his corner. "I am here." In this form his voice came from everywhere and nowhere, it was impressive and caused a second, stronger flicker of fear.

"Come out, we are all friends here." Voldemort said motioning with one hand. The Death Eater's shuffled uncertainly.

Yami allowed them to wait while he considered, humans and Shades were not friends. They never would be friends. Besides which Yami trusted Voldemort about as far as he could see him. Still, just as Voldemort was about to say something more Yami drew his shadows together again and stepped out of the shadows.

Yami could sense Voldemort examining him. His human form wasn't very tall, but it was lithe and fast. He had mimicked it originally from an Egyptian human. His skin was dark over regal features; his hair jet black and wild, falling into his clear gleaming ruby red eyes.

Voldemort tilted his head slightly, "I find your choice of inferior Muggle clothing...interesting."

Yami snarled, letting his fear spells coil around the nearby Death Eaters. "I have little choice when wizards chose to cower behind their spells." He sneered. Several of the Death Eaters straightened anger replacing their fear. Yami smirked, anger was just as nice as fear, it had more of a tang to it.

Voldemort's lips twitched into a mirroring smirk. "Perhaps you would prefer a change?"

Yami tilted his head, trying to see where this was going. Then he lunged for one of the Death Eaters and caught a fistful of his robe. He rapidly wove his shadows through the fabric, allowing himself to learn its appearance.

It was a similar process to how he had gained his human form, though much simpler. The robe was a single, simple structure rather than the complex workings that made up a human body. Also making the copy of the robe didn't kill it as it had done to the human.

According to the Death Eater it still was not a pleasant experience because he opened his mouth to scream silently.

When Yami was done his shadows twitched, adjusting his usual fitted leather clothing to the long flowing robe, identical in every way to the one worn by the human standing next to him, excluding the dirt stain on the sleeve. He looked around, the Death Eater who's robe he had mimic was curled on the ground shaking and muttering to himself. The other Death Eaters had pulled as far from him as they could. Yami licked his lips as he turned to look at Voldemort.

The tainted human waited a few moments before speaking. "Impressive." He noted.

Yami sneered, he had been expecting something a little more original, "You will learn human, there is very little a Shade cannot do."

Voldemort looked interested, "That is all well and good, but I have more pressing matters to discuss with you."

"Then discuss human, I am far from my territory and must return soon." Yami seated himself in the only spare chair in the room. He crossed his legs and lounged backwards, examining Voldemort from under his fringe.

"You killed one of my Death Eaters."

"You did not say that you would be killing all the humans." Yami replied lazily gazing around the room. He examined the other humans, all silent and waiting for instructions. Each of them was trying not to appear too interested in the conversation going on in front of them.

"I do not see why you should care, were they not fearful as they died." Voldemort flicked his wand and a pair of cups floated over.

Yami ignored his as he replied. "I do not care if they die, but if they all do then there will be nothing for me to feed on. I would _appreciate_ that your people do not kill too many." Yami let the suggestion of revenge hang unspoken in the air.

Voldemort seemed to consider this, before he nodded. "Very well. Now onto more pressing business. Would you be willing to leave your territory to work outside the area in places which are more densely populated?"

Yami frowned faintly, "I do not leave my territory, or another Shade will take it from me. You do not understand our politics human."

"You are away from your territory now?"

"An exception, in any case I do not intend to remain here for long." Yami rose, suggesting that he may well leave now. However he could see that Voldemort was thinking very hard and very fast.

"What if I set some of my Death Eaters to guarding your territory?"

Yami's frown deepened, was this human so desperate for his help that he would protect Yami's territory while Yami assisted him in terrorising other humans. It was very strange, but suggestive.

"Very well. On one other condition, these other places must not be in the territory of any other Shade and in getting there I will not need to cross the territories of another Shade." After a moment's thought he added, "And I will not travel the same way as I did to arrive here again. It was decidedly unpleasant and your people will suffer for carrying me." That didn't really bother him, but Yami had no wish to become stuck in the whirling crushing non-space should his transport collapse half way there.

Voldemort's face flickered, to a human that would have meant nothing, but Yami could sense the anger beginning to build, he decided to ignore it. It took the wizard a few minutes to control himself. "As you wish, I will send another messenger should I need your assistance again. Will you travel to your home alone, or do you wish to be taken there this once."

Yami reached out to the limits of his senses and picked up on the familiar ring of his boundary spells nearby. "I will return to my territory alone." He dissolved and flowed out of the room, leaving behind a couple of his darkings. They were instructed to keep close to Voldemort and report to him about the humans actions.

When Yami had reached his territory again and he had patrolled around the edge checking the boundary spells. He settled down to think. This was becoming interesting, but the tainted humans was hiding something. The darkings would pick up on it, whatever it was.

* * *

_Yes Yami looks different. As I have said in Light in the Shadow's Yami only looks like Yugi because of the bond between them, and at this point Yugi hasn't even been born yet, so I had to give Yami some kind of appearance._


	3. Consideration

_Sorry for the wait, I've had a bit of a stall where this story is concerned. This chapter didn't really help, it is really just a exceptionally short filling chapter, gives a bit of background information and gets ready for the big bit in the next chapter._

_I was trying to make this a bit longer but then everything just sort of fell into place and bob's-your-uncle, the story is actually only going to be about five chapters long. _

Chapter 3: Consideration

Yami was absently wandering around his territory considering the finer points of human stupidity.

His darkings had just reported to him. It had taken them a long time to determine what it was that Voldemort was doing. However Yami suspected that the reason behind this was that darkings were not overly intelligent and could be easily distracted. They had finally informed him that the non-human had recently been meeting with other Shades.

Yami had now been assisting Voldemort for several weeks; he had participated in twelve raids on wizard villages and observed several sessions of torture. It had been interesting, but this news was making an already wary creature rather paranoid.

Yami knew through a darking overheard conversation that Voldemort had nearly fifty Shades working for him in various parts around the island. This was nearly the whole Shade population of England. Despite most human myths there were actually not all that many Shades. They had large territories and didn't put up with another Shade in the area. Humans tended to believe that there were millions of them, largely Yami thought because of the darkings which humans couldn't distinguish from a Shade.

Voldemort was beginning to cross lines. This arrangement was starting to get very close to Yami working with other Shades and that was something that neither he nor his kin would stand for.

Yami wasn't sure exactly how he was going to deal with it. Still he had plenty of time. He was making his way over to the nearest human village. The wizards in the area had respelled their homes against him after a few days of terror and fury. The next time Voldemort had sent a human messenger to him requesting his presence Yami had given him a reply; by the time he returned the spells would be gone.

It had been done. Voldemort may have no understanding of the complexities of Shade politics, but he did understand that if he crossed them he was going to be in serious trouble.

Yami prowled through the village. He let his shadows wrap around the humans, their innate spells drawing out the energy supplying emotions.

He wasn't overly obvious about it. That would make the humans suspicious; it was just a generalised feeling of gloom. If he did this on only one human it would be practically useless, but on this scale the emotion was very enriching.

Yami flexed around absently, his darkings were skittering through the buildings tugging apart spells and drawing in the latent energy from them. Yami smirked and stretched out his shadows. In doing so he sensed a human approaching. His magic flinched away from this human for a moment. That was a sure sign of one of Voldemort's human servants. They seemed to be absorbing his tainting to a degree, nothing like the hollow feeling darkness that the non-human himself bore, but a lesser version as though the tainting was contagious and they were not yet fully infected.

Yami found an open clearing in the nearby forest and drew together into human form to wait for the messenger. The human plodded into the clearing panting desperately. Yami had specifically told Voldemort that any of the messengers who arrived via their teleportation spell would have delivered their last message.

The human took some time to recover; apparently he had been running for some time. Yami didn't press him, whatever Voldemort wanted Yami didn't want to wait and playing with the emotions of humans tended to make them confused and very forgetful. As strange as the situation was, the events that Voldemort offered Yami an appearance at were appropriately entertaining to warrant Yami not killing or tormenting every human messenger he saw.

When the messenger had recovered he tried to stand a little straighter. The Death Eaters were becoming more comfortable with his presence, but they maintained that natural wariness. Their irrational fear of the dark.

Still fear was good; Yami wasn't going to let them lose that.

"The Dark Lord requests that you come to discuss a new development."

Yami smirked; Voldemort had sent him a message once, summoning him to his presence. Yami had sent the messenger back with a reply, which came in the form of a Shade spell designed to create real bone chilling, mind numbing fear. Apparently Voldemort had learnt his lesson in manners.

"Very well." Yami said and rose, stripping back the layers of illusion and flowing out over the forest towards the distant house where the tainted human-who-was-not lived.

* * *

_If you have any questions about anything, let me know. I've done this all in a bit of a sleep deprived blur so if something doesn't make sense tell me, otherwise I won't notice._

_Watching an episode of Doctor Who; Silence in the Library, with the Vashta Nerada whole story lines involving Yami and those carnivorous little bastards unfolded. They might make it up, depends on how motivated I'm feeling._


	4. Chaos

_Really sorry about how long this has taken, I have had it written for at least a week now, but my internet decided to go from only working a little bit to not working at all and its taken ages to get it fixed._

Chapter 4: Chaos

Yami approached the house where Voldemort currently resided. Voldemort had been forced by his associations to find a home outside the boundaries of a Shade territory; it had taken him some time because congregations of humans tended to attract Shades.

As Yami drew his shadows together into human form he sensed something strange. Yami paused; his shadows were flickering between leather clothing and the robe that the non-human preferred him to wear.

Yami could sense another Shade.

His reaction was deeply ingrained and instinctual. He moved forwards rapidly, still maintaining his human form, but now coiled into a fighters crouch.

Yami brushed past the two Death Eaters standing guard at the doorway. All the humans knew him and didn't block his path.

Yami reached out with his senses, the other Shade was younger than he was, but at a guess Yami would say that he was still well over a thousand humans years of age.

He was right, Yami stepped into the large room in the centre of the house. Voldemort was seated in his usual place and waiting impatiently in the centre of the floor were two other Shades.

Each in human form, they were watching each other with undisguised hatred. The first of them was the one that Yami had sensed, his great age shown in his gleaming red eyes and his ability to totally mask the presence of the younger violet eyed Shade.

Yami turned to Voldemort who was sitting and watching them all with a look of cool satisfaction. It was time that this foolish human learnt that he didn't try to manipulate a Shade. Yami dropped his human form and lunged for the other two Shades.

Their reactions were so immediate and predictable that Yami was able to combat them both at the same time.

The older Shade dropped his physical illusion and hurtled backwards, he was old enough to know that Yami had the greater strength and he was better off holding back a little at least for the moment. The younger Shade however, hadn't the others knowledge and tried attacking.

Yami slammed the young Shade with a wall of magic which became a stabbing arrow of power. The young Shade let off a shrieking sound as he was sapped of strength. Yami paid him little attention as he gathered his shadows to attack the older Shade.

It was at that point that the others arrived. It had to have been at least forty Shades. Varying from lavender eyed newborns who couldn't even gather into a human form, to a Shade that Yami recognised and who wasn't much younger than he was himself.

Voldemort had risen to his feet, wand raised. "Now that you are all here, we can discuss. It would be greatly beneficial to our cause if you will work together."

Not a single Shade in the room listened; they were all in shadow form and lunging in to join in the fight.

Young and old the Shades attacked each other.

Two Shades fighting a traditional meeting battle could destroy whole human cities. Forty Shades fighting a war of mutual hatred could easily destroy the entire planet. Yami pulled away from the Shade he was currently grappling with.

Most of the Death Eaters had fled screaming in terror a few minutes ago. Some remained and they were all either dead from fright or misplaced magical attack or they had become gibbering wrecks.

Yami looked around for Voldemort.

The non human was standing some distance away watching them attack each other with a look of blind hatred. The emotion filled Yami with delightful energy. The ancient Shade approached the tainted human. "You should have stuck to your own human magic. You have not the mind, intelligence or magic for dealing with creatures as ancient and powerful as Shades. You were stupid to think that allowing us access to more fear would encourage us to work together. That can never happen; you have brought this upon yourself."

Yami backed off ready to rejoin the fight. Voldemort's emotions had lifted in fury and he raised his wand. Yami ignore the spell, and he was to forever regret that decision.

"Avada Kedavra." The wizard spat.

The primitive killing spell in the form of a glowing green light slammed into Yami's shadows.

The energy seemed to drain out of the Shade. Yami remembered when he had last felt like this, he had just been born. He had no energy, nothing. The terror from those Death Eaters left alive began to trickle into him slowly, but it was so slow.

Power attracted power and Yami had nothing left. No reserves and no strength so the power couldn't move into him. His shadows were congealed on the ground and Yami had to drag himself using pure physical momentum into the darkness under the nearby trees. His darkings curled around and departed, no power meant no food so the darkings were no longer interested.

Yami could barely move, barely concentrate. His mind was not able to focus.

He remembered how long it had taken him to gain any level of power when he had first come into being. Yami wasn't sure how long he remained in the shadows, it took what felt like an age for his power levels to reach a point where he felt that he could move back out into the open.

As he did Yami tried not to draw attention, he was in no condition to fight even the weakest of the young Shades.

What was happening outside his meagre shelter was chaos of the first level.

Yami could see those flickering fading darkness's that told him that several Shades had been obliterated. However there were now at least twenty new born Shades. All of them were wandering around, their shadow forms mingling in confusion.

Yami stared. There had been so much magic and fear in the air that they had created more Shades.

Yami glanced around. Voldemort was gone and the remaining Death Eaters were dead. So at least there weren't going to be any more newborns, still this many was going to be a problem, there just wasn't enough space for territories for this many Shades.

Yami tried to back off, but another Shade appeared behind him. Yami fled. He had no other choice; to face off with this Shade would be his destruction.

He tried to make his way back to his territory, but he couldn't sense the boundary spells. Yami concentrated as best he could considering his barely present strength. However his inability to sense the spells had nothing to do with his current weakness. The spells were gone, as were the boundary spells of all of the territories that were nearby.

Yami felt a cold hatred rise up in his centre; this was the fault of the non-human. He had caused this and one day he would pay.

* * *

_Is anyone surprised that Yami hates Voldemort, mmm no._

_One more chapter, a sort of epilogue to go_


	5. The Chaos of Darkness

'_The Circle of Life' from the Lion King came on while I was writing the last part of this chapter; it seemed kind of appropriate and a little freaky._

Chapter 5: The Chaos of Darkness

It had taken nearly three months, but Yami had finally found a small area where he might be able to set up a territory.

This was the third area he had tried. It was becoming more and more difficult as Shades wrestled for spaces destroying the boundary spells before they could be completely established.

Yami started setting up the spells.

It was much easier to maintain spells that were already there than it was to create a territory boundary from scratch and that was what was causing all the problems.

Shades were fighting over the humans; this was resulting in a terror ridden human population. Anti-Shade spells were going up everywhere and without Voldemort's Death Eaters to remove the spells Shades were being forced further and further out into unpopulated areas.

Yami had found several fading darkness's, dead Shades, most of them were either very young or of middling age, a couple of centuries.

Most of the old Shades like himself were still battling it out; they were wily survivors and wouldn't go down easily.

The wizard population seemed confused about the sensation of terror. Yami had heard some of them talking in the last place he had tried to set up a territory. The humans were putting the fear down to Voldemort; they seemed unaware that he had been using Shades in his fight.

That was probably for the best, the less the humans knew of the Shades association with the non-human the better.

Yami prowled around the edges of his new territory trying to set up the spells quickly. He could sense another Shade at the edges of his awareness, a young one, but he would waste valuable time if he had to fight it. He needed to get the spells active before any of his older kin turned up.

The younger Shade was moving quickly, but he didn't seem to be heading in this direction.

Yami added the third layer of magic to the spells, only two more.

Then he realised why the young Shade was moving so fast. Another Shade was following him.

The other Shade wasn't a youngster either, he was old and would at least put up a fight against Yami.

Yami rolled and flashed around his small borders, throwing magic as quickly as he could, but it was no good. The older of the two Shades had sensed something. His range of awareness was much larger than the younger's was. He had sensed Yami and would be able to detect the nearly complete spells.

Yami was forced to stop the spells and roll to meet his oncoming opponent.

As he turned, Yami thought he heard something and he paused, but the sound was gone.

The moment of distraction was enough for the other Shade to reach him.

Yami met the attack head on, just in time. Their shadows slammed together and fought for control.

The explosion of magic produced by the fight destroyed the nearby spells that Yami had been creating.

Once the last of those spells were gone Yami gave up. He hurtled every spark of power and strength he had left at the other Shade. The raw smashing fury knocked Yami's opponent flying allowing Yami to leave.

His darkings swirled around him in distress. Yami was tired now and with no territory of humans he would have to replenish his reserves from anyone nearby.

Yami managed to creep into a non-magical town and found a corner to hide in. It was undignified and desperate, but that was currently the general feeling in the Shade population.

It was as Yami was curled up that he heard that music again. It was a sound that he couldn't so much hear as feel; it hummed through every shadow of his essence.

Yami rose into the air, seeking it eagerly with his mind. He didn't know why, but it was important to him. He needed to find the source of that music.

Yami moved off and as he followed that soft chiming sound he grew stronger. It was as though the music was filling him in the same way that the emotions of humans normally did.

For a while Yami just travelled, his mind pleasantly numbed by the gentle music guiding him. Soon he was nearing the territory of a Shade that Yami did know.

That his borders were still up and functioning was testimony not only to his strength, but to the fact that he had not joined with the non-human.

Yami had only heard rumours of his status; apparently he held a territory which contained elves. Yami had originally disbelieved this idea, but now that he neared the territory boundary Yami revised his thoughts. There were definitely elves in the vicinity.

Yami hesitated for a moment considering heading over to fight with the other Shade. The music gave an especially insistent throb and Yami turned his attention back to the song, following the pathway through the forest. Bakura would have to wait.

He travelled around the edges of the other territory. There were no other Shades anywhere near him, but the number of elves had increased and the music was calling Yami towards one of their villages.

Yami glided into the village. The music grew even louder and stronger until it was almost a physical force pulling him in.

Finally Yami was able to see exactly what it was that had drawn him here. It was a child. An elfin child. He was the most beautiful thing that Yami had ever seen.

The Shade moved closer and the child opened his eyes. They were bright amethyst and they stared straight into his centre.

Yami shuddered and totally unbidden his shadows drew together. It was an unfamiliar form, a small slim body with multi-coloured hair. Yami knelt at the bed where the elfin woman lay holding the smiling boy.

She shifted slightly and turned to look at him, Yami expected a blast of magic. Elves and Shades did not generally get along.

However she simply smiled her welcome and shifted around in the bed to allow Yami a better look at the strange little creature who had so easily and completely ensnared him.

* * *

_Well this is the end._

_For those of you who are also reading Light in the Shadows I hope this has been helpful in filling in any blanks. _

_For those of you who just read this and ignored my other story, I hope you enjoyed this enough to now go and check out the other. If not, glad to have had you along for the ride._

_And for those of you who read this and then went on to read the other, thank you and hooray for plugging._

_Please leave review and let me know what what you think._

_Thanks for visiting _


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